First Dotrix success in Latin America

An innovative joint venture between three companies in Brazil resulted in the first Latin American installation of Agfa’s Dotrix modular digital press last year. James Quirk reports

The first installation in Latin America of Agfa’s Dotrix press took place in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last year. With three companies joining forces to purchase the press – using it to both serve their existing businesses and tackle new sectors together – the installation provides an interesting blueprint for print companies looking to take advantage of the machine’s ability to serve multiple markets.

Unigraph, a provider of pre-press services to the label and packaging industry; Geograf, a supplier of POS materials, displays, signage and folding cartons; and Insight, a printer of banners and posters for food retailers and supermarkets, purchased the Agfa Dotrix together and founded a new company, SMS Impressao Digital, out of the joint venture. The companies’ joint investment, which included Insight and Geograf installing additional equipment for packaging and POP display production, totaled 10 million US dollars.

The modular press is housed in Unigraph’s facility and produces a wide variety of products – from labels and flexible packaging to displays and signage; even being put to extensive use during the 2010 Brazilian government elections – which have helped the companies increase the competitiveness of their own businesses while also allowing entry into new markets.

Investment decision

Unigraph, Geograf and Insight began talks in 2009. The companies’ owners were firm in their belief that packaging market trends necessitated investment in digital printing equipment, and set themselves a series of targets before making a decision. They wanted to be the first with UV digital inkjet in their market; required high production speeds to increase capacity and allow them to produce short and medium run work profitably; and were keen to increase their flexibility to turn work around in shorter time frames and be able to offer UV-quality print on a wider variety of substrates.

‘We looked at all the different digital press technologies available,’ says Michele Lopes, owner of Insight, ‘but the Agfa Dotrix was the one that combined high speed with UV and variable data. UV is important because of the wide variety of materials it can work with – it gives us the ability to innovate. Solvent inks will disappear in a few years for environmental reasons and performance issues: we had to choose UV.’

‘We needed more capacity at the right quality. We need to produce multiple orders of short jobs. In Brazil the trend is towards shorter runs, and more of them. It is a big problem for offset,’ continues Lopes. ‘We knew we needed additional manufacturing capacity with speed and quality to profit and grow in the coming years. We liked the flexibility of the Dotrix: it can work with such a variety of substrates. The Dotrix will be the automatic choice for all printing on vinyl and plastics, but it will also allow us to remain profitable for short and medium run length work in general.’

The machine was installed in May 2010. Within a month, the Agfa Dotrix was exclusively dedicated to printing posters and displays for the Brazilian election, running 24 hours a day until December and supplying the two principle political parties. At the beginning of 2011, SMS Impressao Digital turned to the label and flexible packaging markets, working with leading brands such as Proctor & Gamble, Carrefour and Johnson & Johnson.

‘As the first installation in the region, it required a leap of faith,’ explains Sylvio Serra, the managing director of Unigraph who heads up the SMS Impressao Digital project. ‘Strategically it was a risk, but it is also a great competitive advantage that we are the only company to run an Agfa Dotrix press in Brazil.’ As the first Brazilian company to install computer to plate technology 12 years ago, Unigraph is no stranger to innovative investment.

‘The machine’s versatility is a great advantage, but it brings challenges with regards to finding its niche and its role in the market,’ Serra continues. ‘The Dotrix’s concept is not easily defined, so it takes time for the market to adjust.’

Serra says that the machine may end up specializing in one area, but for the time being the company is taking advantage of the press’s ability to face the Brazilian market’s trends towards shorter print runs and increasing need for variable data, as well as the challenge of decreasing profit margins. Serra cites flexible packaging and POP displays as the markets with most potential for growth. A further advantage has come from the biodegradable inks used by the Dotrix. Brazilian company CRP Plasticos has been testing a biodegradable polypropylene film, Vitopel, at SMS, which Serra describes as an ‘excellent value-added product’.

Prior to the installation, the directors of Unigraph, Geograf  and Insight made multiple trips to Agfa’s headquarters in Belgium for consultation. They also visited Gardners, a digital printing business located in Cardiff, UK, which runs two Dotrix presses for the production of posters, displays and packaging. ‘I saw the Dotrix working all day long without stopping and the owner told me it was the most important machine he had,’ says Michele. ‘At that point, I was happy.’

High production capacity

The Dotrix modular digital UV inkjet press, with a printing width of 63cm, is able to print with high production capacity on a wide variety of substrates including flexible foils, self-adhesive materials over 20 microns, and folding cartons up to 600 microns. With its modular construction, traditional UV flexo printing stations that can serve as coating and varnishing alleys can be added to the basic roll-to-roll configuration. Slitting and die-cutting, as well as sheeting, hot stamping and tooling units, can also be integrated to complete the system. Targeted at short- to medium-runs of packaging and POP jobs, the machine turns out over 1,200 square meters per hour at full speed.

Dotrix employs piezo drop-on-demand print technology across multilevel Agfa print heads. The base unit configuration includes a jumbo unwinder and rewinder, substrate pre-treatment options as well as Corona, web cleaning and anti-static specifications. The jumbo unwind and rewind system can handle rolls of up to 1,250 mm (49in) diameter, weighing up to 800kg, allowing long and uninterrupted print runs.

At SMS Impressao Digital, the Dotrix prints four colors digitally, though the machine can produce up to six. Meech equipment cleans the material prior to printing, before a Vetaphone Corona-Plus provides corona treatment and web guiding. The material then passes through a flexo unit, the digital printing section, a second flexo unit and equipment for reverse printing. Die-cutting accommodates both vertical slitting and sheet cutting and the printed result can be either stacked in rolls or sheets. Further finishing takes place offline.

The Dotrix at SMS Impressao Digital runs at 24m/min and produces 900 square meters of products per hour. The company produces 300,000 square meters a month, though the machine is capable of achieving 500,000 sqm/m. Such is the productivity of the Agfa Dotrix, SMS initially struggled to keep up with finishing requirements, says Serra.

Unigraph employs 25 people at its facility in Sao Paulo, both for its existing pre-press services and the SMS Impressao Digital unit. The Dotrix is handled by two operators and runs one shift.

Claudio Gaeta, Dotrix sales manager of Agfa Brazil, admits that prospective clients can be overwhelmed by the machine’s scope. A deal with SMS Impressao Digital, however, not only allows potential customers to see the machine in action, but also to produce an example of their own print job. It’s an important strategy which lets converters from around the region test the machine and get a feel for its results, without having to invest in the technology first.

‘At SMS Impressao Digital, we can see the opportunities available in the three different areas for which the Agfa Dotrix was really built: POP and POS, folding cartons, and flexible packaging and labels,’ says Gaeta. ‘It is a unique proposal that shows the Latin American market what our digital UV print system can produce.’

Pictured: The Agfa Dotrix Modular press

This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2011